Every winter has its spring

 

Hi All,

 

Firstly before I start talking about the weather and what the team have been doing, I would like to welcome Shah Bani-Sadr our new Club Manager to the Club. 

 

Shah will be a welcomed addition to “Team Stoneham” and we are very lucky to have such a professional career driven Golf Club Manager. 

Welcome Shah! 

 

Back to what’s been happening since my last blog. February has been a good month weather wise.  I know, I can’t believe I am saying that but it has allowed the course to dry up and for the team to get on with some works around the course. 

 

In January we recorded 118mm of rain in a short period before the frosts kicked in. February so far we have only had 7mm of rain with a run of 20 dry days from the 27th of January until the 15th of February. In fact, we are now needing rain to help wash in the sand from Maintenance week and for the newly laid turfs around the course. The irrigation system will be getting fired up early this year. Madness how quick things change! 

 

Looking at the forecast, it looks like things might take a step backwards weather wise. 

There has been a Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) which has taken place over the North Pole, this event can result in a reversal of the normally westerly flow of the jet stream meaning a more easterly jet stream and easterly’s normally mean thermals, bobble hats and gloves weather. So don’t put them away just yet! 

Last time this happened in 2018 we went through a very tough March and April with almost no growth or rainfall registering in the two months then straight into a dry hot, hot summer. 

 

It’s this kind of data that lead us to take advantage of the weather window we are having in February and for us to carry out a mini Maintenance week. Our thought process, was to try and get it done while the temperatures are up, the growth potential is up and the course is dry enough to get around to top dress greens. 

We know the winter isn’t over, we will get wet periods, we will get cold periods, beware of the false spring and all that… but to take advantage of the window when we could. The grass plants are a living organism and they need air just like us. This doesn’t always follow the golfing calendar but having options available to the team to take advantage of the weather are essential. 

Why hollow core greens so early?

 

Like I’ve said above, taking advantage of the wave of good weather is essential, normally we roughly get seven waves of growth between January and May. These can be just a couple of days or up to ten days but these are considerably lower in a SSW year.

As discussed in a previous blog our OM levels in the top 20mm have gone up slightly and just starting to leave our target area. This isn’t something to worry about but a little core and scarify in the spring will pay dividends for the season to help keep us within target. The other advantage is by going early we will recover earlier than normal meaning we are extending the playing season.   

Aprons and over-seeding

                        

 

During the maintenance week we took advantage of the weather and carried another hollow core of the aprons. Our Aprons presentation has improved dramatically over the last few years with increase grass coverage, sward density and heights of cut but I’ve always felt the playability isn’t quite where we want it and this is due to the high thatch content. Working on our OM levels and sanding will increase year on year as we aim to get closer to greens characteristics. More data collection will now be done from these areas to map our progress.

 

You may have also noticed a lot of over-seeding works on fairways and tees. A mix of dwarf rye and fescue seed have been used to help thicken up the grass swards for the season ahead after a tough winter. 

Why the Short game area or Putting green are being closed?

 

As mentioned in previous blogs, the damaged sustained during the cold winter months when we have little to no growth can cause real damage that takes months to repair. This happened to us last year with excess wear on the putting green and the short game green with the latter taking so long to repair that moss invasion took hold of the thinning turf.

Following a visit from our Club Agronomist, it was recommended that during this period of the year we should switch between the Putting green and Short game Area in an attempt to reduce the wear and stress at this time leaving one green open, like we have always had in the past.

Once the growth rates and daylight hour’s increase, both will return to normal daily opening.

 

It’s worth mentioning other clubs in the areas follow a similar procedure including temporary greens on the course. Sometimes I get asked why X, Y and Z are open when sometimes we are closed but these clubs are playing on temporary greens on fairways with all green facilities closed. We however have a different policy and try our best to stay on main greens all the time but protecting the course and our greens is a must.

What have the team been up too?

 

The weather has given the team the opportunity to catch up on various works around the course including gorse and broom removal in an attempt to help speed up play (not that my ball ever finds in way into any of those hazards).

 

The gorse works are done on a three year cycle with one area being removed, the second area the new growth from the previous year’s removal and the third stage being the higher growth that is now to legging and will be removed the following year as we start the process again. As much as we all hate playing out of gorse or looking for balls in them, they do serve a very useful purpose of adding a screen, fantastic colour but more importantly they are great for invertebrates and an important nectar source in early spring and early winter when there isn’t a lot else in flower. It’s also an important part of the heathland habitat so total removal isn’t an option.

 Bunker renovations have taken place on 4^th, 6^th, 12^th and 13^th. This involved taking away the old revetted edge, digging the bunker back to the original shelf and rebuilding the revet turf, soiling behind and turfing. Giving the bunkers a fresh newly built look. The team have done a great job on these!

 

Various weak areas around the course have been turfed. These have included pathway ends and the mounding on the 14^th behind the green. The 14^th has been changed to a fescue turf in attempt to have this a finer grass bank which is easier to find your ball in and less invasive on the heather. 

Grubs

 

One of the concerns we had during the turfing works, was the level of Chafer grubs underneath these turfed areas. This is particularly concerning because the damage sustained by these can huge. Not only do these young grubs eat the roots of the grass plants but the damage caused by birds feeding on them is even worse and something we saw signs of last year.

I am expecting to see signs of damage in the next couple of months, these will be repaired as much as possible but please be patient.

Let’s remember there are no miracle cures as discussed in previous blogs. Our chemistry against these has dramatically been reduced to one product, which is not fully efficient and requires us to decide which one of the two major grubs (leather jackets and Chafer Grubs) causing issues to sports turfs we deal with.

A new era of stewardship forms, dates given when we can apply the product, empty hazard waste collection after and a whole new world of application to only Tees, Greens and 10% of the fairways can be done, meaning 90% can’t be protected and even those areas s[prayed efficiency is around 70%.

It’s a huge issue for the industry and we are not alone. Repairing the damage and moving forward after the hatch is one of the only things we can do.

 The never ending leaf clearance…

 

One of the issues of the late fall of leaves this winter and the added pressure of the wet period, has been the feeling that we are constantly clearing leaves.

We started this back in October with things ramping up until after Christmas but actually getting around the course was limited and the team trying to work off of pathways and blowing leaves to these areas in attempt to collect them up in areas with minimal impact, which in the conditions was hard, add into this the high winds of late and the leaves blowing back out of the woodlands or storage areas, this has made this a constant battle. The team have been going around the course blowing leaves out of heather, long roughs and trying to find pockets of areas we were unable to reach until now for clearance. It’s a tough day with 25kg blower on your back blowing 237mph. It’s even tougher from October until February.

Heather plugging

 

Lots of heather plugging has taken place around the course including on areas we have been struggling to maintain grass on slopes like the 4^th left hand greenside bunker. We done this on the 1^st a few years ago and it meant we weren’t left with bare areas on bunkers and adds a  more natural look to the bunker. Luckily, in all the years I’ve been here I haven’t seen anyone play a shot from that area, behind the bunker yes, in the bunker yes but never from to rear bank so hopefully this won’t affect too many and only be an improvement visually.

Heather plugged into 11th carry 

11th 1980's

The other main area we have been working on is the 11^th carry. The 11^th carry in the past was always a heather carry but this was lost over time and we are trying to bring highlights of this back to the course. We have left a bigger walkway than it was previously, which also doubles up as a landing area for those not feeling confident of the carry. 

 

 The Range

This week you may have noticed the range has been closed for two days. This has allowed works on the synthetic greens to take place. The removal of moss and grass ingress from the surfaces is a must and keeps them performing great. This is something that will need to be done yearly as we try to extend the life of the surfaces.

BTME – The Greenkeepers Conference

Mark Blake, Levi Pethick and myself attended BTME, the greenkeepers conference at Harrogate. The four days provided over 6000 hours of education and a trade show the latest industry ideas. The seminars and conferences we attended were fantastic and there was a real buzz about the place. We came back to the team very inspired for the year ahead with lots of new ideas and up to date with the latest industry goings-on. Our CPD points have also been given a top up.

This year we have welcomed Freddy Banks and Matthew Strutt-Donnelly into the team and both have settled in to the team fantastically.

 Matthew has joined us a casual until the end of September. Matthew comes from greenkeeping royalty with his father Lee being the only Master greenkeeper in three different countries in the world and Lee’s wife Sami, is the Chief Operating Officer for BIGGA and in charge of all greenkeeper training in the UK including being the director of BTME.

Freddy is a junior member of the club who will be working weekends and some holidays to help the team as he’s looking at a career in greenkeeping. Freddy has been working with the team during maintenance week and playing off 3 handicap, will help us in many areas, especially with the Staff v Members match! 

That’s enough from me, time to make sure I have enough kindling for this next round of frosts. Don’t forget the hat and gloves in the coming weeks, as they say “every winter has its spring” and it won’t be long until we are enjoying that now.

 

See you out there!

 

Matt 

 

 

Making hay while the sun shines

Mini Maintenance Week 13th February – 17nd February 2023 

Below is the information on works to be carried out during course maintenance week 

 Please give way to operators at all times Greens and Aprons 

Monday: Micro hollow core greens, collect, topdress, brush (Back 9 Closed) 

Tuesday: Micro hollow core greens, collect, topdress, brush (Front 9 Closed) 

Wednesday: Micro hollow core remaining greens, collars and aprons, collect, topdress, brush (Back 9 closed) 

Thursday: Micro hollow core remaining greens, collars and aprons, collect, topdress (Front 9 closed) Friday: Cut and Roll greens, fertilise. Possible snagging day for bad weather. 

Following the works the greens will be sandy and a little bumpy.  

We apologise for an inconvenience. 

 Please remember these works are essential for our greens to continue to improve! 

• Tees – Verti drain, top dressed, over seeded with rye, bent and fescue mix and fertilised 

• Tees, Aprons & Surrounds in (13th-17th March) – It is intended to Hollow tine and collect then rake and blow 

• Fairways (week of 20th March)- Hollow coring and over seeding of weak areas around the course, scarify and clear 

 All Greens works will be carried out in maintenance week 

 

All works are subject to weather conditions

Matt Plested 

Course Manager 

February 2023

What goes up, must come down or is it 'What goes down, must come up'!

 

Hi All,

 

Ice 14th fairway 

Happy New Year to you all! What a month we are having again but the good news is we are nearly at the end of January already and it’s starting to get lighter in the evenings already.

 

Let’s quickly look back at the details from last year now we have the totals before we catch up with what is happening now.

 So the rainfall total for 2022 finished with 846mm of rain. Our yearly average being 900mm and my technical FIA assessment back in November was for us to finish around 850mm for the year so not far away. If you are wondering what an FIA assessment is, it’s short for Finger In the Air assessment ;-)

 

Rainfall figures 2015-2023

We have had 540mm falling from September to the year end with January so far has had 116mm. The figures show it’s been a wet winter but one of the biggest issues is the dry down days or lack of. It rained 28 out of 29 days from December into January before this cold spell and let’s remember when the ground is frozen that water isn’t going anywhere. It’s still there and causing us issues and won’t take much rainfall to top it back up once the frosts thaw.  There are positives from this amount of rainfall. Firstly it actually shows us areas we need to work on and to plan for future drainage projects and where drainage issues that are falling and secondly we needed the rainfall to fill the aquifers and reduced the high potential of a hose pipe ban in 2023.

Comparing our drought years 2018 and 2022. Yearly average in red.

Why do we only have 9 holes available to play?

 

Ice 15th fairway 

This is a question I am getting asked a lot but this is something that has been caused by the weather mentioned above.

 I can’t remember a time when our water table has been so full and over flowing following high levels of rainfall and then we have gone into two big frost periods so quickly. This has meant we have lying water, puddles and leaching from banks that are now freezing and turning to sheet ice. Our daily set ups include salting pathways during this spell but we cannot salt turf as it will kill it, so our only option is we need to be patient until the frost lifts and the water drains down.

16th Pathway

But why the back 9 I hear you ask… The back 9 tends to have most of the low lying areas if you think about the difference from the 1^st, 3^rd and 4^th compared to the 17^th and 15^th or the change from 6^th and 7^th across to the 12^th and 14^th. The water is shifting to these areas as it naturally does all the time but these areas have just frozen solid and turned to ice before it’s had chance to get away. This hasn’t improved in the last two days, in fact it’s got worse as another permafrost has developed. Our worst areas are on the 12^th fairway, 14^th fairway and 15^th fairway with slopes and areas around the 10^th and 11^th and then huge areas of sheet ice on the 18^th and 17^th paths as you can imagine the flow down the 18^th and from the range to these areas.

Despite daily salting of these pathways, these then thaw slightly and it washes the salt away and then freezes again from the evening. This is now leaving ice layers on top of ice layers making it unsafe. We have had a couple of injury’s within the team this week just trying to inspect these areas.

Why are the bunkers so solid?  

 

As above, the amount of water flowing through the bunkers is extremely high as they are low points around the course. Again these have just frozen solid and need time to thaw out.

You may have noticed that some of the liners have been on show due to the wash downs, this again is simply down to the 18mm of rain we had on the day 18^th of January and that night the temperatures dropped to -6, leaving the wash downs solid. We have been working I the afternoons to try and pull these up and have now gone out with new sand in attempt to cover these over to stop balls bouncing out where possible.

 I have been asked questions about the puddle of water sitting in the first 12^th bunker on the right of the fairway. This doesn’t happen often but this bunker was drained into the low point in the woods between the 12^th and 11^th. This area is a soakaway and normally copes well with the amount of rainfall we have and as it sits above the 11^th ditch it naturally empties towards it. However with amount of rainfall experienced in the last month, the low area and soakaway are now full to the brim and there is nowhere for the water to drain too. Once we get some drying days (un-frozen) the water table will lower and this will return to normal. It’s something we can pick up when doing drainage works in that area, with us connecting this soakaway to the ditch at the 11^th. 

What’s happening with the 7^th Green?

 

The 7^th green was always the green we set our standards off. It gets very dry and stays pretty firm. Our yearly data has showed it normally stays within our target areas more than most greens and was the reason we decided it didn’t need drainage.

Fast forward to this winter and it is unbelievably wet and very, very soft. If I am honest we aren’t 100% sure why this is but I have a couple of ideas and this is something we are investigating.

 

Has the recent irrigation works done something? Maybe? As the pipe work is mole ploughed the bullet ahead on the plough is slightly bigger than the pipe to pull it through and this leaves a clay ploughed trench around the pipe. It is possible that this has hit a drain unknown to us and now with all the water this is gathering and running around the outside of the pipe to the low area at the front of the green. We know it isn’t the irrigation system itself as this have been drained down and fully blown out, leaving no water in the system. This kind if issue is very common and something most clubs that have installed irrigation recently tend to go through. We even have concerns about this happening on the 1^st hole with the water diverting away from the green to the right hand side.

 

The other option could be, have our parameters changed… Have the greens that were once so much wetter than the 7^th, became better performing and the new norm following the drainage works. Our data is showing the 7^th green is sitting wetter than the 6^th and 8^th for example. Are the other greens draining down at a faster rate and our once bench mark green has been left behind… This is a high possibility and the data tends to back this up.  Do we now have to drain this green? This is something we need to discuss as club and from member feedback but until then, we will be investigating all we can and the green I am sure will dry back down once we have the right conditions.

So what have the team been up too?

 

The team have remained busy, apart from salting the bridge, car park, clubhouse and pathways around the course our attentions have turned to refurbishing course furniture with the help from John Bolwell and his sanding machine.

 

 

Refurbished Yardage markers with numbers painted now 

Our yardage markers, made in house from a fallen Chestnut tree on the 7^th a few years ago have been showing signs of taking on the damp. You may have noticed them, getting darker and harder to read despite lots of oiling and protection being applied. This is something we didn’t expect but have since found out that’s why Chestnut isn’t used a lot for course furniture. We have decided that a full replacement wasn’t viable this year with costs and some proposed changes so the team have been renovating the yardage blocks and markers and these will put back out when complete.

 

Lots of work on Gorse removal to open up areas and speed up play has also been getting complete.  

Smoke rising a view to 5th restored

Bunker renovations have started on the worst bunkers around the course and the team will be continuing this process in the coming weeks. New revet turf and worn areas are being turfed as we try to continue to protect the huge investments made in 2016-2019.

Bunkers renovations on the 12th 

Right, that’s enough from me. If I was a betting man and looking at the temperatures I think this weekend and early next week the course will remain the same, 9 holes open and closed for a full thaw day as discussed in the ‘Frozen’ blog. We are trying our best to give you the member some opportunity for golf/ a walk around the course and will open the rest once it’s safe to do so.

Let’s remember what goes up, must come down and we have certainly gone through the coming down bit of late and what goes down, must come up… surely the temperatures have to come up soon and we will have just a mild, dry-ish period… Surely!

 Until then, wrap up warm and be careful in these conditions. The season isn’t far away.

 

See you soon

 

Matt 

 

The Big Thaw

 

Hi All,

 

My last blog before Christmas. I just wanted to keep you informed of what we’ve been up too and what’s happened during the thaw and as we look forward.

 

The big thaw finely came on from Sunday 18^th December and took until Tuesday the 20^th to thaw completely. The down side for us was the 43mm of rain that fell during that period of time on top of frozen ground. On Sunday the course puddled up very quickly and standing water was visible all over the course.

What we were left with following the thaw was greens that felt “like walking on pillows” is how a fellow Course Manager explained it to me when describing their greens. There was no doubt they were very soft and felt like we had carried out an aeration practice to them. This was due to the moisture that was already present in the soil then freezing and expanding in the soil profile, puffing (scientific word J) the surfaces up.

As these thawed, instead of the air being pushed out of the soils until they settled down like normal, the now new bigger pore spaces between the soil particles filled with the heavy rainfall meaning we were left with soft greens.

Foot printing on the 7th green 

We knew just like after aeration works, these would settle down and with the rope drainage assisting by constantly reducing the water table once unfrozen and to prove this, a green that is normally one of driest year round, the 7^th, which is one of only two that haven’t been drained sat as the wettest and took the longest to recover.

The negative with the frost was not only the superficial damage to the surfaces with black marks, that will go yellow in the coming days before returning to green but the root shear, which we have seen no signs of thankfully.  The positive is the mini aeration caused by the expanding frost within the soil, giving us nature’s natural aeration with no damage to the surfaces by machines. Every cloud and all that!

What have the team been up too?  

 

Oak trees on the 12th and 7th still hanging on

Amazingly, even after the cold spell and then 40mph winds some of the leaves are still hanging on to the trees, making the never ending leaf battle continue.

I’ve been looking through my photos of the course since 2015 and all the leaves are down by now. Admittedly these have been getting later and later, especially since I started in the job back in mid 90’s but I think to still see trees with leaves on them going into Christmas is a new one on me and shows that there has been a real shift in the seasons.

 

The team have been battling hard all autumn with the leaves and I think considering the conditions they have done a great job and I thank them for it.

In the last week we have been turning our attention to the ditches again. Not only getting the leaves out of them to keep the water flowing but we’ve now started clearing the sediment out of the bottoms with our mini digger. Something we haven’t been able to do sine our last digger got stolen in 2015. You may have noticed this is being left out on the course, hidden away from view as there is always someone watching the diggers…

Final thoughts

Well this week hasn’t ended how I hoped, with the clubhouse closed due to a water mains issue in the area and the power cuts experienced earlier in the week and the course flooding as Mother Nature throws one last wet spell at us to get us nearer to our yearly average. That’s 761mm of rain to date with more falling as I sit and write this out and another 40 odd mm predicted between now and New Years Eve, meaning we will hit around 800mm less than my prediction of 850mm (but who would have imagined the frost period we just had, it’s a one in ten year chance on average). This gets us closer to last year’s 806mm after a wet summer, dry winter that year and 100mm short of our yearly average. Incredibly at the end of August we were just over 300mm… Not a bad effort from Mother Nature to catch up.

No one wants the run up to and the Christmas period to be wet and the course unplayable, although the daylight is turning the right way we still need to protect the course and member safety. We are just about to go into our lowest growth months of the year. When the course is safe and playable it will be open! As a team we want the course open. Sat here now with the course closed and the clubhouse in darkness it’s got a terrible déjà vu about it but we know it’s only for a couple of days and then hopefully onwards. 

That’s enough from me again as I need to rush off for those last minute things I’ve forgotten for the Christmas dinner.

I would just like to thank the greenkeeping team for all their hard work this year, I would like to thank all the other departments for their help and laughter this year and lastly I would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

 

See you soon

 

Matt    

Frozen

Hi All, 

 Well it’s nearly that time of year again when festivities, Christmas lights and family are top of the agenda. What a month this has been! 

 We are going from one extreme to another on a weekly basis at the moment. The temperatures have now dropped to lows of -5c in the last week, that’s a 45c swing in temperatures from the high of the summer to the lows of winter. From the biggest drought in 500 years to one of the wettest periods on record… who said grass isn’t resilient and the greenkeepers ;-) 

Dealing with extremes is becoming more and more of the norm but when you step back and look its worrying but also a challenge we need to face. When I mean challenge, I mean doing what we can to mitigate the issues, the new irrigation system helps mitigate the drought, we have now taken delivery of a new trencher to allow us to start draining areas for the winter months with a special emphasis on moving water with more gulley pots and shaping to add to those already done to move surface water quickly after the heavier downpours, this water can then be linked up and eventually harvested in a reservoir (hopefully if planning goes through) and the sustainable future becomes a reality.

So let’s look in a bit more detail about the recent weeks and current trends and what this has meant for us as a team.

 November 2022 has ended up the 2^nd wettest month ever recorded, only narrowly missing out on top spot by 3mm with 224mm of rain falling. The highest amount we have had at Stoneham was October 2020 with 227mm following a mini drought that summer too but the big difference to this year, in 2022 the 224mm came on the back of a wet period of rain 98mm in September and 91mm in October.

This made things very hard for the team, we reduced our cutting to a minimum so as not to mark the course but some essential works have to be done including blowing and collecting leaves.

Leaves blown out ready for collection with the Trilo

They say a large Oak tree has over million leaves per tree, how may large Oak trees do we have around the course? Have a look around next time you play.

We spend over 1000 man hours a year just collecting leaves. We need to do this so you can play golf, so balls can be found and to stop the leaf litter effecting the heather. The team do their best to stay on the greenkeepers tracks and collect from or as near to it as possible and walk with back blowers to the areas to blow.

Other essential works include spraying, this might be to reduce disease pressures, to apply wetting agents that make the rainfall penetrate the surfaces so we can open the course and regular feeds to help us battle against the issues with leather jackets and chafer grubs.

The plant needs to be healthy as possible to try and survive this time of year when the young are feeding on the roots. Luckily, we took the opportunities between the weather windows to apply all of the above. The conditions might not have been ideal but these works are essential to keep the course playable now and in the future.

I have some who ask why a sprayer can be out on the course when we are asking golfer to carry their bag if possible.

The answer to that is simple, we need to carry out the works, the team are trained not to drive in the same patterns and avoid as many wet areas as we possibly can, I am not saying we never get it wrong but considering the amount of time we are going around the course the damage is always minimal or superficial.

Golfers by the nature of the game have high traffic areas even with the roping off of areas, tees and greens are funnels around the course and wear from 140 golfers per day can be excessive, especially over turf that’s not growing in the winter months.

 Now in December we have been hit by a prolonged frost period and if the forecast is right will see this being as bad as 2010 for the amount of frost days and no growth.

Hoar Frosts 

Some of these have been what they call Hoar frosts. Hoar frosts form when the vapour in the air comes in contact with surfaces that are already freezing. Ice crystals then form in patterns that look like little beards on the grass plant, hence the word Hoar which come from the old English word ‘Har’ which mean ‘hoary’, ‘gray’, ‘old’. Perhaps as the crystals resemble a beard on an old man. Bet you didn’t know there were different frost types J

The prolonged frost has made difficult in another for the team. Our Frost holes that are covered in cup covers and Astroturf top so the surfaces are smooth are frozen solid. Something that’s never happened before for us. The greens have been so firm from the permafrost that we are unable to change holes. The frost period normally comes after the leaves are down in January to March but this time the leaves are falling late due to the mild wet November meaning the leaves are frozen to the surfaces and take a lot long to clear off the playing surfaces. It does leave a very cool imprinted pattern on the greens and tees afterwards. You may have noticed!

Winter Mats

Winter mats. Following the trial of the winter mats the feedback from all members was appreciated with the overall majority saying they really like the winter mats. The rest of the par 3 tees have now been delivered and are out on the course.

 Please remember the Local rule from England golf were mats have been provided is –

 "Where present, tee mats comprise the teeing area. When starting a hole from a tee mat the player MUST stand and play from the mat.

Penalty for Breach of the local rule: Match play – Loss of hole, stroke play – two stroke penalty".  

Putting green 

You may have noticed the putting green is being closed during this winter period. I thought I'd share our thoughts on this. 

Last year the level of damage carried out on the putting green was substantial and was highlighted by the clubs Agronomist Phillip Armitage in his report. 

The damage from last winter didn't really recover with some marks still evident. The odd putt to warm up was not the issue but the level of putting drills.  At times last winter the green was being used more and more for putting drills, towels being placed on the ground and stood on in an attempt to protect the grass or golfers standing in the same spots over and over. Even with the towel down the damage was too great plus no growth meant we couldn't get the grass back until later in the season. 

This year to help spread the wear, we will be shutting both the putting green and short game area. We will alternate these week on week in a hope to spread the damage around and allow some recovery. The short game area will also benefit from the recovery time during these deep dark days of winter. 

The only reason we are having to do this is to still allow those who which to practice the chance. On the main greens due to the nature of the course, less practicing goes on and the wear is naturally spread across the greens surfaces. I hope that make sense! 

Updates will be made via the website and answerphone plus the sign saying 'Green Closed' but this wont be forever and will be monitored weekly. Once we start to see growth rates increase we will return to normal. 

The coming days… 

The danger now is the low pressure system arriving on Sunday. This will bring large amounts of rain falling on frozen ground. This will mean the water will flood as it won’t be able to penetrate the profile. The course will be unplayable and become dangerous in areas with the only people benefitting from this period being the litigators.

Our other issue will be as the top becomes soft and the underneath stays frozen we will experience something which we do not get often down south, it’s called sudden thaw dynamics or 'Rootshear'. The roots will still be frozen into the ground and the top mobile, meaning as it’s walked on the two layers separate and rip the roots of the grass plant. This can cause serious damage.

 

The reason I am highlighting this, is to forewarn you that IF the forecast is correct I can see the course being closed, even though it will look like its fine to the eye. We will be out testing the soil profile and will open it up as soon as it’s safe to do so. This is one of the reasons we’ve remained open during this period compared to almost all the courses in the area which have been shut for a week now. We will always keep the course open if it’s safe to do so but some days you can’t beat nature and we need to be patient.

At least we have the driving range so the golf swing can still be honed while the course becomes safe.

That’s enough from me this week. Its all about damage mitigation this month as we now enter those months with low daylight hours and no growth. As a positive note to finish on, its only a week to go before the days start to get longer and our journey back to spring begins! 

Please wrap up warm and enjoy these frosty sunny days. 

Regards

Matt